More than a thousand of NGO representatives and OSCE member-states participate in the annual meeting. During the conference human rights defenders discuss a number of topics related to all aspects of the human rights defending.
Representatives of Belarusian NGOs have presented their reports on the situation in the field of freedom of association in Belarus, including the application of Article 193-1 as a means of harassing members of unregistered NGOs.
Human Rights House Network along with the Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations and several other civil society institutions from Belarus and abroad actively participate in the Stop 193.1 campaign directed at cancellation the infamous article. This article de facto equates any civic initiative with a felony; if applied it could lead up to 2 year imprisonment to anyone who engages in activities of unregistered NGOs.
Valiantsin Stefanovich, lawyer of the Human Rights Centre Viasna, made a report related to this important topic. Ales Bialiatski, HRC Viasna chairperson, commented:
“Mr Stefanovich made a very concrete example of the legal situation with the Naša Viasna registration. He said that the Ministry of Justice had refused to register the human rights organisation for a third time in a row. This is a sever violation by the Belarusian authorities of the Constitution and international agreements. NGO representative also touched upon the repressive punitive article 193.1. Overall, it is very important for NGOs to be present and have ability to address problems along side with official state representatives during these annual meetings.”
Promises to cancel the punitive article
The official Belarus delegation was present at the OSCE conference as a counterweight to NGO representatives.
“An official from the Ministry of Justice officially declared that the Ministry was considering the question of reforming the Criminal Code. The responsibility for illegal membership will be transferred to the Civil Code,” said Ales Bialiatski.
During the Human Dimension meeting the Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations delegation will participate in several presentations related to the human rights situation in Belarus. Particularly, on 8 October there will be discussed a civil society role in the dialogue between Belarus and EU.
It is worth mentioning that the OSCE Human Dimension meeting is a regular forum of the OSCE member-states and European civil society. During the two conference weeks implementation of responsibilities, which countries have taken to implement, will be analysed.
Great opportunity for our human rights defenders
This year attendees of the program Bring International Standards Home, organised by Belarusian HRH in Vilnius, Aliaksandra Vasilevich from Homel Democratic Forum, Andrei Stryzhak and Siarhei Khadzko from the Viasna Babrujsk (city in South-East Belarus) office took part in the OSCE meeting.
The participants believed that their presence on the meeting was a sort of practical realisation of all those skills and knowledge about international responsibilities of Belarus in the human rights field they received during the program. It gave them an opportunity to ‘address critically insufficient actions of the authorities to democratise the country.’
They pointed out that the most important was a possibility to address the authorities directly during the meeting and to stress problems, which Belarusian NGOs are facing. Amongst them were violations of the freedom of assembly, the right of association, questions related to the human rights defenders security and many more.
